1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to padded garments and particularly relates to a garment having padding made up of energy dissipating conformable padding attached thereto.
2. Description of Related Art
In many activities padding worn by a user acts to absorb energy from a sudden impact. Such a sudden impact occurs in activities ranging from sporting activities where frequent contact is likely to vocational activities where contact is less likely, but nevertheless a very real possibility. As examples, sporting activities, to name a few, may include football, soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby and basketball while one such vocational activity may be, for example, that of a tradesman. An additional sporting activity includes race car driving, whereby the driver experiences impact transmitted from the car frame.
However, even when such padding is employed, depending upon the manner and degree to which the padding conforms to the user's body and the energy dissipating characteristics of the conformal padding material, the force from a sudden impact, which may be vibrational, may not be distributed over the area of the padding. For example, if the padding is made of a hard shell and contacts only a protriding bone, all of the force of impact may be transmitted to that bone. Even when the padding is not associated with a hard shell, if it nevertheless does not conform to the user's body and exhibit desired energy dissipation characteristics, then once again it is possible the energy from a sudden impact may not be distributed over the area of the padding but concentrated in a smaller area.
For providing a clearer explanation of the effect in response to sudden impact when hard shell padding is used, football shoulder pads will hereinafter be discussed with the understanding that the scope of this application should in no way be limited to such shoulder pads, or hard shell padding in general, but may be extended to padding used for body protection in a wide range of activities.
Directing attention to football shoulder pads, a set of shoulder pads may protect a football player from the force of a sudden impact upon the shoulder pads by distributing that force across a wider area on the body of the football player. Although many shoulder pads have a high level of adjustability, nevertheless due to the variation in shape inherent in the bodies of individuals, the contact areas and the degree of contact between the shoulder pads and the football player's body are irregular, thereby resulting in an uneven distribution of forces through the shoulder pad to the body of the player. In a worse case scenario, the shoulder pads are supported primarily by the clavicle bone and any downward force upon the shoulder pads is transmitted to the player entirely by a concentrated force upon the clavicle bone. Some shoulder pads include a protective ring around the clavicle such that forces are transmitted through this protective ring. However, even under these circumstances, there is an imperfect mating between the shoulder pads and the body of the football player such that transmission of forces produced by sudden impact upon the shoulder pads is transmitted to the player in an irregular pattern depending, first of all, on the existence of contact between the shoulder pads and the player and, second of all, on the degree to which such contact provides support. It is possible that with this irregular contact certain contact areas will absorb a greater amount of the force from sudden impact than others.
Athletic trainers frequently customize the fit and impact protection of shoulder pads by securing resilient padding to the interior of the shoulder pads in an attempt to provide a more uniform contact between the shoulder pads and the player. However, securing such padding to the inside surface of the shoulder pads may be difficult.
Furthermore, such padding ideally will follow the contour of the player's body. However, even with such padding, the force exerted upon the shoulder of the player may be uneven.
A conformal, energy dissipating padding design is needed to provide relatively uniform contact between hard shell padding and its wearer such that forces produced by sudden impact may be more effectively dissipated.
Again, while this scenario has been directed to football shoulder pads, this same problem exists with protective equipment used in many other sports including soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby and basketball.
In a separate scenario, the uniforms in many sporting activities are not intended to accommodate any padding and, furthermore, over time, a distaste on behalf of the fans and the players has developed toward the use of padding with such uniforms. However, in contact sports, such as, for example, rugby and soccer, it is believed that padding may be embraced by the players but only to the extent that such padding does not substantially change the appearance of the uniform and to the extent that such padding does not inhibit their movement.
Therefore, a need exists for padding that is conformal to the body surface it contacts and dissipates the energy of a sudden impact to participants in sports activities.